Enter the sanctum with the first trailer for Marvel's Doctor Strange

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We've been waiting since Iron Man for the films in which Marvel Studios would branch out beyond their core Avengers team, and 2016 is the year it finally seems to be happening. In just a few weeks we get Black Panther's first appearance in Captain America: Civil War, and then this fall we see the arrival of Doctor Strange, one of the most exciting Marvel solo films yet. Now, the first trailer is here, courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel Live, so we can finally meet the good Doctor himself.

The film follows the same basic trajectory of the titular hero's comic book origins. Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is an accomplished surgeon who, after a car accident, loses his greatest tool: His hands. In an effort to get his career back, he travels the world in search of something, or someone, that can fix him. In his travels, he meets The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who shows him paths of magic and astral projection he'd never known before, and as a result he becomes a magical superhero. The trailer is a rough sketch of this plot, with a few looks at our villain (Mads Mikkelsen) thrown in for good measure. Check it out:

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The rain-soaked opening shots are vintage Scott Derrickson (who also directed stuff like The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister) but the trailer also shows the film's many dimensions, both literally and thematically. The stuff between Strange and the Ancient One almost looks like The Matrix, while the reveal of New York's various aspects looks like Inception. We get a brief glimpse of Rachel McAdams as a still-unnamed character, some gorgeous shots of Mikkelsen warping reality, and then there's Cumberbatch at the center of it all, using his amazing voice talents (which have, in the past, often been fodder for talk show goofs) to transform himself into the New York surgeon who becomes the Sorcerer Supreme. For me, this is the ultimate Marvel movie dream come true, and this trailer lives up to my expectations.